Never the Same
by OptimusPrime2017
Summary: 17 year old Dwayne "Dawg" Rivers is changed. Majorly. Once human, now an alien. He struggles to figure out who he truly is as the Autobots and Decepticons continue to battle over the remains of planet Earth and the human race. Life will never be the same again.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Dwayne Rivers, a seventeen year old boy, leapt off of the top of the six foot tall chain fence. He dashed across the plains, his short black hair blowing in the breeze. He heard and felt the ground shaking as the alien robot chased him. He stumbled as the chasing robot shot the ground with its advanced gun. He tripped on a rock and tumbled on the thin grass. The red-eyed alien caught up, glaring at him.

"Please." Dwayne begged. "Don't kill me. Please."

"I am Megatron." The alien scowled. "I give no mercy."

The silver mech pointed the blaster at him and began charging it up.

"Please." He repeated. "What have I done to you?"

Megatron let out a growl-like noise.

"Dawg!" A voice came.

Dwayne looked to see his older brother, Jonathan, racing towards him.

"Wait! Don't!" He screamed, just as he heard Megatron's arm shift positions. He watched as a red bolt of energy hit his brother. "No!"

Dwayne scrambled to his feet and raced towards the motionless body of his brother, which now lay in a black crater. He fell on his knees at his brother's side, struggling to hold back tears.

"John, get up." He pleaded, shaking his brother.

"It's okay." Jonathan murmured, holding a wound on his stomach. "It's okay."

"John…"

"You need to...get out of here." The other boy said. "You hear me, Dawg? Leave this place."

"No. Not without you." A single tear leaked out of his eye.

"Dwayne, listen to me." Jonathan struggled to speak. "Get out of here. You have to live. For me. Okay?"

Dwayne let out a sob. "O-okay, John. For you."

"Now go." He clutched his free hand into a fist and held it to his chest. "I'll always be right here, in your heart."

"G-goodbye, John." He struggled to his feet as his brother's eyes fell shut and the chest stopped moving.

Dwayne glanced at Megatron, who happened to be looking the other way. He took off at a run, back towards the chain fence. _For you, John. For you._ He reached the fence and climbed up it, jumping off of the top. He landed in a crouch and got up, racing along the remains of the street. One of the few remaining pieces of mankind.

"Come back here!" Megatron roared from the field.

"Oh no." He gasped, running past a smashed car. He reached his left arm out in front of him. He remembered a serum his father had given him two or three years ago. He was told to use it whenever he was in great need of assistance. He pulled it out of his jeans pocket and looked at it, unsure of what it would do. _I might die anyway. Just do it!_

Dwayne stabbed it into a vein near his left elbow and felt himself changing. Majorly. Physically, not mentally. But before he could think anything of it, he heard Megatron's blaster go off and felt the beam of light slam into his back. He dropped the empty syringe and tumbled on the rocky ground.

Letting out a gasp of pain, he lay still, a calmness having come over him. _Relax. It's okay. No more running from it._ He knew the last part wasn't his own thought. He was too calm to even worry about it though, as he stared up at the dusky sky. He heaved a sigh as his vision went dark...


	2. Chapter 1

Dwayne regained consciousness hearing metal footsteps on the ground. _Oh no. Oh no! Not him again!_ He opened his eyes, sat up, and got to his feet. He looked around frantically, but he froze for more than one reason. Megatron was nowhere in sight, but there was a squad of Autobots standing nearby. Two, he was much taller.

He swallowed, nervously and looked down at himself. Instead of seeing his human self, he saw a silver mech. A beat up, silver mech.

"Are you alright?" A yellow and black mech asked him, walking up.

"No." He responded, detecting a hint of roboticness in his voice. "Not at all."

"My name's Bumblebee." The mech held out his hand. "Pleasure to meet ya."

"I-I'm Dawg." He replied, shaking hands with the Autobot.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to the team." Bumblebee motioned with his hand, walking towards the rest of the bots.

"O-okay." Dawg stumbled after him, tripping over his own feet. _What happened to me? DId the serum do this? The blaster? No, not the blaster. It was the serum._

"Better keep up!" The other mech called back.

"Oops." He muttered. "Yeah, sorry." He jogged up to Bumblebee's side. "What happened to me?"

"What do you mean?" The yellow mech halted and turned to look at him. "We should be the ones asking you."

"I, uh, how did you find me?" He stammered, searching for the right question. "Was there anything near me?"

Bumblebee looked just as confused as he felt. "Uh, there was some kind of human serum next to you."

 _The serum! Oh yeah._ He thought for a moment.

"That seem important?"

"Yeah…" Dawg admitted, scratching his metal head.

"Well, we'd best get to the others." Bumblebee said, continuing towards the other mechs.

"Yeah, yeah. That's right." The silver mech walked after him.

"Hey, Optimus!" The other mech called to a blue and red one.

"Bumblebee." The blue and red mech responded calmly, turning to walk over to them.

"The new guy is up. Well, obviously." Bumblebee told him. "His name's Dawg." Then he turned back to the silver mech. "That's not your full name is it?"

"Dawg is my nickname." He admitted. "My full name is Dwayne Rivers. All of my family is dead. My friends. Everyone I know is gone. Killed in your war."

"What do you mean?" Bumblebee asked.

"I-I was a human." Dawg began, heartbreakingly. "Megatron was trying to kill me, so I took a serum that my father gave me out of my pocket. I poked that serum into myself right before I got shot in the back. I just woke up and I'm a freaking alien."

"Relax." Optimus held his right hand in the air. "Did your father ever tell you where he got the serum?"

"I-uh, hang on." Dawg thought hard. _'This serum is from the government. They got it from one of those aliens they smelted down.'_ He recalled his father's words. "He said that the government got it from smelting down one of you guys."

The Autobot narrowed his optics and nodded. "The serum seems to have been hot Cybertronian metal. It makes sense why it transformed you." He looked him up and down. "Lots of sense."

"So, now what do I do?" He complained.

"You fight." Bumblebee told him. "You're one of us now. There's no going back."

Dawg nodded, taking it all in. He was an Autobot now. His former life was gone. It was time to move on. "Alright." He replied, accepting his new life.

:Autobots, regroup: Optimus' voice came through a comm, making Dawg jump slightly.

The other three bots, who were in the field, began jogging in their direction.

"The red one is Drift," Bumblebee explained, pointing out each bot. "The fat green one is Hound and the other one is Crosshairs. Got that?"

"Yeah." Dawg nodded.

He spotted an orange 2016 McLaren P14 and scanned it with some kind of his robotic alien technology. He let out a small gasp of surprise as he turned into it. He transformed back into mech mode, looking at his now orange frame.

"Awesome." Bumblebee commented, having watched the whole thing.

"I know right." Dawg flexed his shoulders.

Bumblebee shot him a smile, which he returned smugly. The other Autobots were just reaching them. They stopped before Optimus, who Dawg figured was their leader.

"What is it, Prime?" Crosshairs asked.

"We're rolling out." The red and blue transformer told him.

At those words, all five transformers turned into their land vehicles. Confused, Dawg copied them.

:Stay in behind me, okay?: Bumblebee told him through a private comm link.

:Yeah, got it: He replied.

The six Autobots drove onto the nearest street, Dawg in the back right behind Bumblebee.


	3. Chapter 2

:There's some Decepticons up ahead: Optimus told them. :Be prepared to fight:

 _But I don't even know what weapons I have!_ Dawg thought in frustration, accidently revving his engine. _I better have something at least. Going in a fist fight is not what I have in mind._ He set up a weapons scan, which finished in seconds. It confirmed that he had a sword and a gatling gun. _Awesome._

He adjusted the panels of his roof so that they opened up, revealing his gun. Aiming his gatling gun at one of the Decepticons, who had spotted them as well, he began firing immediately, hoping the gun had a good damage rate.

The enemy bots transformed into mechs as the Autobots got closer. Then they transformed into mechs as well, Dawg switching to his sword. The two teams reached each other, clashing swords and firing guns.

Dawg ended up slashing his sword at the infamous Barricade, who fired a gun at him in turn. He dodged the first shot, but the second one smashed into his left arm, causing energon to spill over the orange metal. With a jolt, he realized that they were outnumbered badly.

Taken off guard, a enemy bot leapt on top of him, making both bots crash to the ground. Dawg let out a groan and kicked out, his foot connecting with the mech's face. The Decepticon let out a roar of anger and forced a fist into his chest. He twisted the arm and rolled of top of the enemy, gaining an advantage.

Dawg grabbed his sword, which he'd dropped, and chopped the twisted arm off of the Decepticon and backed off, only to be tackled down by another bot.

"Whoa!" He groaned as he hit the ground.

Dawg slammed the blade of his sword across the bot's neck, decapitating it. He shoved the body off and got up, glancing around at the other Autobots. They were struggling against their own opponents. Before he could go to their assistance, he felt something stab through his back.

He let out a cry of pain and looked down at his chest only to see the end of a sword sticking through him. Energon leaked from the tip of the blade and streamed down his body. He let out a strange gasp and he dropped his sword, reaching both hands to his chest. He used one to push on the blade, while the other held his wound in pain.

Dawg already knew that the Decepticon was watching him struggle, ready to make the kill. _So this really is the end,_ He thought with a pang of sadness.

"Another Autobot dead." Megatron's familiar voice grumbled in triumph.

Seconds later, Dawg heard a gun fire feeling the bullet digging and pushing deep into his neck. He tumbled over just as the sword was pulled out of him. He let out a gasp of pain, clutching his new wound, as he looked into the deep scarlet eyes of Megatron.

"I give no mercy." The Decepticon leader growled, before firing the gun into his head.

Then it all faded away...


End file.
